The stator of an electric motor comprises a stator core, consisting of a stack of laminae, having at least two and sometimes more coil windings thereon. The ends of the windings must be connected to insulated lead wires which extend from the stator to the switch or other control circuit for the motor. In addition, it is common practice to provide a motor protector having two terminals, one of which is connected to one of the winding ends and the other of which is connected to a lead wire. The motor protector serves to shut down the motor in the event of an overload or other undesirable operating conditions.
The connections between the insulated lead wires and the ends of the windings are customarily made by crimping connecting devices on the ends of the leads and the winding ends. The terminals of the protector are similarly connected by crimped connectors to the end of one or more windings and a lead wire. It is often necessary to use color-coded lead wires and connect each wire to a specifically predetermined winding end since the lead wires in turn must be connected to predetermined terminals in a switch for controlling the motor.
The manufacturing and assembly procedure described above is relatively costly and time consuming and presents many opportunities for errors or mistakes in wiring the stator. For example, the operations of connecting the lead wires to the winding ends by means of crimped connections is usually carried out by hand with a crimping press and the operator must therefore handle the entire stator each time a crimped connection is made. These crimped connections between the lead wires and the winding ends must, moreover, be insulated since they are adjacent to the stator and the coil windings and the provision of insulation on these connections adds additional labor to the process. Mistakes can arise in wiring the stator since predetermined color-coded wires must be connected to the winding ends and if a mistake is made at this stage, the motor will not be properly connected to the switch for controlling the motor. When a protector is provided, it is customary to connect one or more of the winding ends to the protector and also to connect the protector to a lead wire and these operations add more labor to the process.
The present invention is directed to a combination of a motor stator and a stator connector which greatly facilitates the wiring of the stator and which eliminates many of the manual operations discussed above. The provision of a connector on the stator which can be mated with a complementary connector is also advantageous in that the lead wires can then be produced with a connector on their ends, the complementary connector, as a harness subassembly which can be produced with automatic or semiautomatic machines. Making the connections to the stator would then only require that two connectors be mated with each other.